# What is the largest musical instrument ever built? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 30, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-largest-musical-instrument-ever-built/642534 "2012-11-30T02:03:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![sidecar\_jon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@sidecar\_jon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidecar_jon)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-largest-musical-instrument-ever-built/642534/21 "2012-11-30T19:59:44Z")
[![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wartuba.jpg) ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wartuba.jpg) war tuba! ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-largest-musical-instrument-ever-built/642534/22 "2012-11-30T20:35:59Z")
Apparently some versions of the [telharmonium](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telharmonium), one of the earliest electronic synthesizers, weighted up to 200 tons. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-largest-musical-instrument-ever-built/642534/23 "2012-11-30T21:17:39Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > [Earth Harp](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJUZGy26_Uk)is probably going to win for stringed instruments. Earth Harp is a sham. Whatever sound it makes isn’t coming from those strings; pretty sure he just uses them as triggers for a synthesizer, or else he’s just moving his hands in synch with a synthesizer that’s on autopilot. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-largest-musical-instrument-ever-built/642534/24 "2012-11-30T21:30:57Z")
Having seen [Cast in Bronze](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cast_in_Bronze) several times, I cannot image a louder or bigger instrument than a carillon ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-largest-musical-instrument-ever-built/642534/25 "2012-11-30T21:46:40Z")
I thought of the apparatus/arrangement/sequence of things to hit in the OK Go video [“Needing/Getting.”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MejbOFk7H6c) (Which is described in a behind-the-scenes [clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsK8TSx1Sbk) as a “mile-and-a-half-long instrument.”) ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-largest-musical-instrument-ever-built/642534/26 "2012-12-01T00:24:50Z")
> [@sidecar\_jon](#): > > [File:Wartuba.jpg - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wartuba.jpg) > > war tuba! Better that than [heaven-spanning trumpets of eternal doom.](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kw9PPa6k1k4/T93-P2NkljI/AAAAAAAABRw/26Q1vkPKP74/s1600/Michaelangelo-Last-Judgement-Trumpets.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-largest-musical-instrument-ever-built/642534/27 "2012-12-01T00:39:36Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > There are many YouTube videos of the Wanamaker organ in concert, as well as interviews with organists on playing it. One is a broadcast performance with the organ and its city’s eponymous symphony orchestra. > > Your turn. Touché! ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-largest-musical-instrument-ever-built/642534/28 "2012-12-01T06:10:47Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > Aren’t there some whistling caverns somewhere? **[Fingal’s Cave](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingal%27s_Cave)**? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-largest-musical-instrument-ever-built/642534/29 "2012-12-02T01:03:07Z")
I finally got curious enough to google the Wanamaker organ. Here is what I found: > [@](#): > > The Wanamaker Grand Court Organ, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the largest operational[1] pipe organ in the world, located within a spacious 7-story court at Macy’s Center City (formerly Wanamaker’s department store). The largest organ by some measures is the Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ (which is barely functional). The Wanamaker organ is played twice a day, Monday through Saturday, and more frequently during the Christmas season. The organ is also featured at several special concerts held throughout the year, including events featuring the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ Festival Chorus and Brass Ensemble. So Wanamaker’s has become Macy’s! And the Atlantic City organ is apparently bigger but basically non-functional. Who knew? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-largest-musical-instrument-ever-built/642534/30 "2012-12-02T01:25:40Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Earth Harp is a sham. Whatever sound it makes isn’t coming from those strings; pretty sure he just uses them as triggers for a synthesizer, or else he’s just moving his hands in synch with a synthesizer that’s on autopilot. And you say that why? Because you can’t imagine how it works, or aren’t familiar with acoustic engineering? Are you familiar with transverse waves, and how rosin causes strings and pipes to vibrate? ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-largest-musical-instrument-ever-built/642534/31 "2012-12-02T04:33:25Z")
The [web page](http://earthharp.wordpress.com/about/) for the the Earth Harp notes that the wave is a longitudinal wave - which makes sense. The velocity in a wire of the longitudinal wave is significantly faster than a transverse wave, and less lossy - so the length of wire vibrating for a given note is much longer. There is however another interesting statement: “he created a method of tuning the giant long strings; using a specially designed tuning block that he discovered could tune the strings to any scale.” My guess is that this tuning block is fully determining the frequency of the system, and that the strings are acting as transmission lines, not as resonant elements. Depending upon the tension in the strings and the losses in them, you could have a line that simply adsorbed all the energy at the bowed end, through to one that returned a reasonable amount of energy - but with quite a delay. The strings would be acting as an echo - providing a sense of space to the sound - one that was related to the size and nature of the installation - and thus rather in keeping with the idea of the Earth Harp in the first place. Energising of the tuning blocks comes from energy injected from the strings - and due to the close coupling of the blocks to the nearby part of the string the physics of bowed strings and fingers on wine glasses (bowed is a transverse wave, finger on glass a longitudinal wave here ) couples well - but it isn’t the string that determines the frequency - but it does determine the overall acoustical characteristic. The Earth Harp does remind me a bit of Lucier’s Music on a long thin wire - although the physical principles are different, there are some overlaps, both in mechanism and in artistic ideas. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-largest-musical-instrument-ever-built/642534/32 "2012-12-03T00:44:38Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > And the Atlantic City organ is apparently bigger but basically non-functional. Who knew? Especially after Hurricane Sandy. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-largest-musical-instrument-ever-built/642534/33 "2012-12-03T03:21:46Z")
> [@sidecar\_jon](#): > > [File:Wartuba.jpg - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wartuba.jpg) > > war tuba! It looks like something invented by Dr. Seuss! ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-largest-musical-instrument-ever-built/642534/34 "2012-12-03T13:08:35Z")
> [@sidecar\_jon](#): > > [File:Wartuba.jpg - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wartuba.jpg) > > war tuba! Incredible. I had no clue such things were in use. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-largest-musical-instrument-ever-built/642534/35 "2012-12-03T16:31:20Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Incredible. I had no clue such things were in use. Yeah, they’re [acoustical locators.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_tuba). Never heard of them before this thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-largest-musical-instrument-ever-built/642534.md?page=1)